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Friday, February 16, 2007

3 comments:

Because heresy is by its nature the pursuit of a private opinion above the community of the Church and her doctrines, heresy is a rather common practice in the United States. Individualism tells us to think for ourselves, and if we find ourselves in agreement with a community, it is because we are brainwashed or just not intellectual enough to think for ourselves.

Of course this is more the problem of material heresy, because most people do not know they are in error and do not intend that error; to be formally a heretic, they have to have been given personal correction, and still persist not just believing in their error but also proclaiming it.

Certainly the standard rally cry of the Protestants, but because our culture in the United States is Protestant, it is also the rally cry of most Americans -- even Catholics -- who do not know better.

This of course is also one of the many problems of the American academia as well (the modern academic way being a combination of the ideals of the German Enlightenment with American "rugged individualism.")